For Patriots, ‘gotta play better, gotta coach better' never rang more true

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The Patriots fell to 1-2 on the season with a stunning 26-10 loss in Detroit against former defensive coordinator Matt Patricia. Click here for the boxscore, and here to watch what the coaches, players and analysts were saying after the game.

GAME WITHIN THE GAME
The biggest X-factor going into this game was how well-prepared the Lions would be by Matt Patricia, given his knowledge of what the Patriots would like to do on both sides of the ball.

Based the Lions’ success, it’s safe to say he sniffed some things out.

Defensively, Detroit didn’t appear to blitz much. The Lions just played solid coverage and rushed four most of the time. That was plenty to keep the Patriots receivers from running free and allowing Tom Brady to stand back and pick them apart. The sacks they had were coverage sacks. The pick they had was an instance where Brady appeared to just wing it into coverage hoping to pick up a chunk. It wasn’t close.

Meanwhile, the Lions took full advantage offensively of the Patriots' inept and unimaginative pass rush. Aside from Deatrich Wise showing up with a terrific singular effort on his sack, there was precious little heat on Matt Stafford and he was content to find the holes on the sidelines and throw short over the middle where the Patriots labor to cover.

Most discouraging for New England was the way Patricia and his offensive coordinator, Jim Bob Cooter, exposed Malcom Brown and Lawrence Guy at the point of attack, rooting them out of there and then getting LeGarrette Blount and Kerryon Johnson to the second level with speed.

The Patriots were outcoached, certainly. But they also seemed to just take it on defense. They got pushed around, play after play, and just kept lining up and allowing it to happen again. 

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